Gay Marriage: Pro or Anti?

[Alcon]

Why do gays need marriage?

(apologies for offending anyone, I'm not trying to troll you into an angry response, I just don't understand why, with civil partnerships, gays need to be married)

As a straight person, I think it's incredibly condescending that we've created this bizarre separate class for gay people.  For ages, I've never had my potential relationship held up to strict scrutiny.  Now that gay marriage has come up, people are bending over backwards to define gays out of the things we associate with marriage.  If marriage has a reason to exist, it has reason to benefit gays (and society by extension.)  If it doesn't, we are still being jerks by not extending the symbolic treatment to dedicated gay couples.

The idea that the highly dedicated gay couples I know -- many who have children -- should be denied equal government recognition because of some abstract normative concept of marriage, or because of vague demographic reasons, is just totally laughable to me.  The only things that distinguishes this from anti-miscegenation laws, to me, are uncompelling arguments about biology (not that we straights have ever been judged for marrying without children) and fallacious appeals to tradition.

It's not that gay marriage is a big deal.  It's just that it's one of a tiny number of public policy issues where I genuinely believe one side has an obviously superior argument.

[Alcon]

anti gay marriage but im not homophobic

Why are you anti-gay marriage?  It doesn't really matter if you're homophobic or not -- that doesn't preclude your position from being wrong.

[Alcon]

anti gay marriage but im not homophobic

I'm going to say this again: If you oppose gay marriage, then you oppose gay couples having the same rights as straight ones. That's homophobia, pure and simple.

Not necessarily. I oppose gay marriage but I also oppose straight marriage, so gay couples would have the same rights as straight ones and yet there would be no (state-recognized) gay marriage.

Yes, that's a very popular opinion around here and you're not the only one who has it, but it's not politically viable and not how your vote would translate in an actual referendum on gay marriage.

[Alcon]

1.yes i support civil unions
2.im in favor of gay adoption rights and hospital visitation rights

We get that you're against gay marriage, but why?  Why do you folks think there's a compelling enough reason to deny gay folks the access to a word of considerable personal importance -- at the governmental level, at that?

I'm sorry to be pushy, but this is an issue where the opposing arguments just seem so obviously awful to me.  It's one of the only issues.

[Alcon]

But why the distinction?

If anything, I think the equality in everything but name is even more insulting.  It's like, "Hey, you've proven you meet the minimum threshhold for there to be a societal interest in giving you equal rights to heterosexual couples...but we're going to make sure you'e discriminated against anyway."